Humans and AI: Meet Anshu Sharma
Meet passionate people from all walks of life who are putting AI into action to transform our world.
Meet Anshu Sharma
Growing up, Dr. Anshu Sharma had always enjoyed taking walks where he could observe his surroundings and take in the world around him. It was during these walks that he also witnessed the harsh realities of the world and saw the impact of naturally triggered disasters on communities. Today, he is working on SEEDS India, an organization that uses AI technology to help build the resilience of people exposed to disasters.
Observing my surroundings
I was born and raised in Delhi, India, where I was taught as a child to worship various elements of nature – whether it be trees, plants, or animals. I witnessed a lot of floods and often found myself wondering why no one was paying attention and what could be done? I knew we couldn’t stop naturally triggered disasters, so I wanted to help people live with them.
Planting seeds
When I went to college, I decided to study planning and architecture. While I was there, I continued to witness more disasters in the area and realized that the current processes in place weren’t working. I realized infrastructure improvement could be a key component to defend against disasters. There, I also met my co-founder, Manu Gupta, who felt the same way. This was how SEEDS India was born.
Helping people where they are
SEEDS was created with the goal of helping people best prepare for natural disasters depending on their specific situations. Using AI technology and satellite imagery, we can identify the types of materials used for households in a region as well as determine how impacted that region would be by a flood. Combining these two data points together, we can create customized advisories to families.
Partnering with the community
Once we’ve determined the risk and customized advisories for each neighborhood, we work closely with local agencies and non-profits to communicate with people within these communities. We partner with them because they able to respond very quickly as well as provide direct aid. Engaging directly with the community is a critical part of the process.
Hope for the future
Ultimately, I want to be able to provide communities with resources to prepare for disasters, help them rebuild after disasters, and reduce any future risk for disasters. With the use of AI, the hope is that we will be able to do exactly that and cater our aid to each individual family within a community, so that everyone can be helped and feel seen.
AI, for us, is a tool to make invisible people visible. Change cannot be driven from outside, and that's what the work of SEEDS is all about.
